I'd say it depends in what context you see "communication". As an IT specialist I know the impact of technology on communication very well and for the most part it has had a predominantly positive impact. For example today we have the capability to reach billions of people acros the globe in less than a second. 20 years ago this was considered some kind of utopia in a sense.
The negetive effect of technology was that we went from calling to texting, from inviting people to your party's physicaly to creating socialmedia events, from having fun on playgrounds to sitting behind a screen and playing digital games. Resulting in a devastating degradation in not only amount of social contact (this being offline) but also the quality of set contact (this mainly online)
This resulted in a generation of kids growing up isolating themselves and not learning how to interact with other people in a real social environment (outside schools)
So in the end it is not technology or technological advancement the has an impact, it's the way we use it. The only thing I can say is a true negative impact of technology is that we are far to dependent on it.
I'd say yes, people who can socialize online do not necessarily socialize well in person.
Phone skills are also learned to.
The biggest thing I've noticed is people are far more rude online, where in person they are more polite, even when you disagree.
Trump got a lot of flak for how he talked and tweeted online, yet many of his critics did the same thing online about him.
Online conversions seem to often end up with someone insulting the other person. Imagine if in person conversations ended up with insults as often... just a thought to think about.
The only reason I ever block anyone online is when they resort to insults or name calling. One can disagree and do so professionally and politely. If your goal is to just insult and name call, no point in having a conversation with that person.
As for texting, worst way to communicate ever. Texting kills thousands of people a year, cause people try to do it at the wrong time, driving or so forth. At the same time people also expect instant responses, if you want instant why not just call them and chat for 5 minutes? A texting conversation can go back and forth for hours or days, when a 5 minute phone call gets it all done quickly.
Guess if someone wants to drag it out.
Ultimately it isn't the form that is the problem but how people use it and how they use it, is the problem with modern technology.
I’ve worked with a number of disabled people who would not be as connected to outside of their ‘world’ without technology. They engage with others with less fear of judgement. They would be alone without it.
I don’t see anyone else complaining, unless it’s about false/troll personalities, but there is a downside to everything.
I do believe it's had a negative affect on people's social skills. It seems that there are way more issues with social anxiety these days and people who are scared to death to make a phone call or talk to anyone in person (or basically via any other means than through a screen).
Opinion
50Opinion
Yes and no.
Technology improved communication from texts/video calls in many ways. Covid hit and many jobs relied on video calls to work from home. Jobs can use video calls for interviews. Being able to answer text messages back whenever are very convenient. People can easily have conversations texting and to multiple people at a time. Video calls can help being away long distance from loved ones. Internet (Facebook for example) let's you keep in touch and find people around the world.
Technology is ruining communication in some ways. Texts can be difficult to tell what the person is trying to say sometimes. Some people have "relationships" through texting more than seeing each other. People can easily play games through texting in the dating world. Hard to tell what emotions are behind the texts sent sometimes. Some people never want to actually meet and just use a person as a texting buddy. People can easily hide conversations by texting so someone else doesn't find out. Texting/video calls/phone calls aren't the same as in person and some people trapped themselves in that world rather then going outside meeting people.
I think an argument could be made either way. On the one hand, are people now having difficulty communicating in person? Maybe.
On the other had, we can now keep in contact so much easier. Relatives and friends who live so far away that we'd normally only see every few years, now we can facetime, text, talk on twitter, etc every day if we want. People who never would have met 30 years ago because they live thousands of miles apart are now connecting because of online gaming, or fandom sites, or chat forums. We've developed a language online to communicate tone, sarcasm, etc. It's pretty amazing actually
It's making people dumber in some ways. For example it's known that search engines are reducing variety in language. Before search engines people would learn words by talking to others and reading... getting to see how a word can have different meanings based on context. With search engines people look up a word and they only notice the 1st definition and they have no clue about other contextual meanings. The other thing that search engines and GPS does is get you to stop remembering things. Before these technologies existed people had to learn and remember stuff. Now your brain is using devices as an external storage device. This has been shown by science... it means your memory isn't as good as the memory of a person before this stuff existed. Your brain doesn't bother to store information that it knows can be easily found online.
Yes I do believe the the use of technology is ruining communication. Younger generations have spent so much of their lives communicating with others via a keyboard rather than face to face or verbally. As a result some of them lack even basic social skills and the ability to interpret body language. It's also easy to be angry and attack someone from behind a keyboard, but when I comes to a real life discussion and debate, they have no skills and don't know how to handle the situation, or how to articulate themselves.
Glad to see you had to argue both sides. That is a good way to critically think.
I think this is very debatable and might vary based on your age. For instance I did not have social media until I was 26 but started to text a little earlier than that.
Not growing up with it allowed me to be more social under the pre tech way of communicating with others.
Being old enough to remember before internet and young enough to adapt to tech gives my age bracket an interesting perspective in my opinion.
That said, I don't think tech is ruining communication but it makes us lazier and public schools across the country have dropped grammar which plays a part in communication.
This is a great question and I feel could spur a lot of other great observations.
Technology has made communication much easier; my Mom says she wishes they had Skype when she was little so she could have seen her Grandparents more than 3 times in their lives. It has cheapened it in a way - you had to put a lot more thought into a letter that took weeks to get there, or in a phone call that cost more than the hourly minimum wage per minute.
But technology is not social media, that is another question entirely. Social media has made "friends" who have never met. It has expanded bullying into the privacy of the home. It has its good sides too; it is much easier to keep or get in touch with people you've lost touch with. And to spread family news.
Yes it is. I remember even in the late 2000s and mid 2000s when they are was technology but not as advanced as recent times, people would still socialize a lot more. It started changing a lot in the early 2010s. By like 2012 you already notice how so many people are starting to suck at socializing with people in person that they didn't know. Then by like 2015, it became so out of control, that it is sad. Ask people that were old enough to remember, how people were with socializing in person back in the late 90s and before that. They would say back then, that people were way more social in person with people that they didn't know. People were way friendlier back then. That is what they would say.
I don't know but I have this really bad habit, if I'm not interested in a conversation I just stay completely quiet and I can tell people feel awkward but I can't be arsed to small talk. To think of it, it's not a bad habit I like doing it
Either side can be well argued. But technology is just another means of communication application, it can help the dyslexic or deaf communicate better, it can make the criminal and troll more enabled.
It's more about the personality of people communicating these days.
Yes. I think a lot of people don’t even know how to start conversations anymore because most of the time people are staring at their phones during social events.
personally I noticed myself using my phone as kind of a defense mechanism, I usually struggle with social anxiety (I’ve gotten a lot better as of lately) and I will purposely go on my phone because I’m afraid to talk to people or I don’t even know what to say
In a way, I'd say yes. Communication is based on kind use of words to serve your listener in a way that they can relate. With social media convo or lingual, the conversation can be confusing at times.
Also many people are so webbed into the www that, they have to offline social skills or life.
People can be in contact with thousands of people but they never really get to know anybody. We have all these amazing ways to communicate cheaply and efficiently but nobody talks. Think about when was the last time you had a meaningful conversation with anybody online? You probably never had one. Think about that the next time you ghost somebody. The person you are ghosting probably couldn't care less because they will just go to the next person. If it wasn't so sad it would be funny.
I agree that texting is ruining normal telephone calls
and people are doing away with traditional phone service
cause to save money and are using cell phones and also
Verizon Fios is taken over and moving in where people
have Xfinity ( Comcast) .. Some people are doing away
high rate cost of Internet and go with the cheaper guys
Yes I miss interacting with real people and they just wanna text or use a massaging app like Instagram or Kik. I think a lot of younger people and my age have bad social skills because of technology. I also think that's why some people are single all the time or have bad relationships because there social skills never were improved with people and become anti-social
It is, whether people like to admit it or not. People are just different when they're on social media or just generally interacting with other people online whether it's on an online game or other than that. I've had friends from highschool who would stand outside of a grocery shop, planning what to say, for minutes before they finally go in. But when they're on social media they're a whole different person who isn't afraid to be toxic towards other people and what not.
absolutely. people are less happy. they don't know how to socialize anymore. and are encouraged to constantly compare themselves to the faceless mass of humanity.
texting cuts down on humane interaction and we get less real time with one another and all of this allows us to cut ourselves off. young people block eachother over trivial things and that's more permanent than things used to be
Yes but not for everybody. Just don't let it take over you. If you are strong you can avoid it. It's just convenient for people because its a safe place to speak your mind and say whatever you want. It can also save time from potentially meeting someone you don't like due to having different ideas.
I mean it does lessen ones ability to think quick on your feet and to process what you are saying before you say it but I don't think that it has to ruin our abilities. I just think that it does. Like because we don’t notice our own inabilities we fall in to the slump.
Yep. Now when a family of 4 go out to dinner everyone is looking down in their lap playing on their phone completely oblivious to anything going on around them
Social media is fake advertising and voyeurism. Voyeurism was never considered healthy or normal but it has been normalized by abnormally normal "social media". Social media is an abnormal dream world. Live in the real world. It has screwed up dating and courtship too.
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